I WIll Be Called Amma!

What wonderful news came from the kids a couple of months ago - we are getting Grandchild!  We are getting a boy and his intials will be KCH!  We are all very excited about this and we cant wait to meet him!  The world will be bright with wonder and light, and one again stars will spill from the heavens!

Isnt this the cutest baby announcement?  Yes they do have four dogs!

As we explored the new news and what our roles would be - we talked about what we will all be called.  This child has so much family and he has already a Great Nana, a Great Great Meemaw, he has a Great Pap, and Great Boopah, he will have a Pops, a Papa, another Nana, a Gramma, Probably a Granny, I think another Meewaw, and I......I will be called Amma!

Amma is the Viking name for Grandmother.

And it is fitting for the mother of one of these too cool kids who will soon become too cool parents themselves!  It's Reed - Im Reeds mom - an soon to be KCH Amma!  Im sure it will be one of his very first words!  Which may be fighting words...... we'll see!

I am blessed beyond measure by this goming star, and the kids will be too.  I hope that you are blessed with the wonder and light that new beginnings bring.

Stay tuned for more of the blessings to come!  Blessed Be! 

Not Dahlias -it's F'ing Rhubarb

Often here in the Big Lake Burg, we get terribly excited about things that come up in the Spring!  Especially when it is something special, rare and dare I say, unexpected!

This year I got a wonderful text from my dear friend, who always has flowers long before I do, and usually knows what they all are, and has everything  marked and tagged and Im pretty sure she has a map of all her plants around her yard (OK I do too but mine is pretty not up to date)!

This is her space THIS YEAR!

Mine still looks like this:

Hubby said "You wouldn't believe the actual tornado that came through and tossed all your stuff off of the brick patio"!  Not that it looked like my friends yard before that, but it was better than this!

She texted me two beautiful Dahlia pictures and said "I didnt get a chance to lift my Dahlia tubers last fall, and two of them are coming up"!

She said "I think these might be them (pictures from Fall 2025)

I was beyond excited!  Alaska Hardy Dahlias!!  Unheard of!  I even texted her back and said "My parents will be so excited-  Cant wait to see what they bloom!"

I called my parents right then and told them!  They also were beyond excited to see what Dahlias were coming up!  To give you an idea of how my folks are with Dahlias, my dad grows them and they are wonderful!  He probably has at least 250 tubers and at least 30 varieties!  Its really amazing!

This one is one of my favorite varieties! No - I don't know the name of it - pretty sure mom or dad will know!  We always had enough Dahlias and  Peonies to do the Centerpieces for Tea Time for Court Time fundraiser!  Always so beautiful!

Of course, in true Alaska Style my friend called me and in her driest monotone said "It's not Dahlias - Its Fuckin Rhubarb!!!"

Apparently she forgot that the Dahlias got moved to another location and an "emergency placement" of Rhubarb went in their place to make sure the Rhubarb would have the best start possible!

Emergency placement means that the Rhubarb had been somehow orphaned, or displaced from a friends house, or that friend had too much, or they had to move and werent able to take it with them.  It was a Rescue Plant!  Which is not a bad thing, but is also NOT DAHLIAS!

I hope that your Spring is warm, your plants are where you thought they would be, and that they bloom and bloom!  

Blessed Be!

We March.....

 It is Reeds Birthday Month here in the Burg and although the first day of Spring is also in March, we are far from Spring here in Big Lake!  We still have at least 3 feet of snow and ice remaining to wade through!  We are over it!

Brix and Ike are totally over it!  Too hot in the house when the sun is shining in it and too cold to stay on the porch all day!  Can't win!  You can see all the snow behind the pups in these pictures - yes they are recent - like two days ago!

I am over it!  Just when we think the sun is going to burn off some of the (by now) yukky snow and ice, the wind will start up again - we have had more wind this year than I ever remember before!  

We have also had the birthday of two of the worlds best Hoomans!  Reedo and our Meemaw (Hubbys Grandmother on his dads side).  Reed is now 26 and Meemaw is 94!  I think of all the life in between them and how much they have seen and done (both of them) in this life!

Yes - he is using a power tool to carve a pumpkin!  Multi tool and multi task on this one!

He is an amazing man, and Hubby and I wonder all the time about how he got that way - we try hard but we are not nearly as good as this guy is!  He is kind, loving, strong, hard working, resilient, and I think he puts a lot of thought into decisions that he makes! He is also hilarious with his sense of humor! Yes, you Boone!

He loves his friends his family and he loves to fish!  I could go on for days about Reed, but everyone who knows him alreadys knows all this! IF you can't tell- I'm incredibly proud of him too!

We have all been a little sick with a nasty sinus infection so we didn't get to do a big to-do for this birthday, but we will catch up (maybe in April) and do it then!

Meemaw at her 94 year old birthday party - picture by Deannah Humphreys I think!

Meemaw remembers everything still and is sharp as a tack!  She still has amazing style and good advice, and she is still very handy with a recipe when it's needed! She, like Reedo, Loves Her People! Our family is so happy that we still get to have her in our lives, even though our Alaska Peeps have to do it by phone and facetime most of the time!

March is full of birthdays for our family group and if I were to profile all of them it would be a book in itself! We have Nephews and Aunties, and a ton of the friend group too - someone told me once that March is a big birth month because June is warm!  Ill just leave that right there!

I hope that Spring is being good to you, and if you have had a birthday recently, I hope it was a good one and the start of an amazing year!

March On and Blessed Be!

February - The hope for better...

 Happy February!

It's not all hearts and flowers here - actually pretty much not at all hearts and flowers for the most part!

It's Rye's birthday month this month and it falls on a Friday - which is excellent since this year I will not be trying to work on his birthday!  Each year I have to choose ahead of time how it might go and this year I'm just not up for trying it out to see if it will go well!  I just want to be still like a vegetable!

Left photo is you and Katie Carney at I believe, her birthday and right is you with your new snowmachine sled that you were so excited about and rode it until it was just rubble!  Then you and Reed rode it some more!

Today you would be 33,  It is our 9th birthday without you, heading like a hell's snowball toward your 10th year gone.  It has not gotten easier - maybe only a little "less" heavy on some of the days.

This is a Thanksgiving on the Slope and maybe not a birthday but, it is a celebration all the same.  I don't know all of these people even, but some of them have reached out since you left us.

We made it through January - just barely I think here in Alaska!  It felt like it was about 97 days long and Im not the only one who felt that way! We rode out three storms Since December 15th ish that kept us on our toes, our shovels, snow brooms, and sometimes at home snowed in!

Your 21 year birthday - Fun at Chepo's and of course the "Rye Sign"!  If we had only known we would only get to have you for two more years..... If only.

We had wind, rain, snow, ice and just so we didn't give up - a little sunshine that came with COLD!

With the cold also comes some fun - aka Last Frontier Pond Hockey Classic with my best Pickle Sticks!  Dear readers can check out more about the team and the products at this Page!  Its such a hoot to see Reed and all the "fella's" playing this fun level of hockey - just for the love of the game! You would have loved this event - it would have been fun to see you play with your brother and probably against your old friends...

Yes - its those Friese boys!  It was clear and cold and beautiful and fun!

42 below was the coldest we had here in the Burg ( luckily not on Pond Hockey days), where we are and we did not get the sort of wind that they got in Wasilla, but it was enough to make the dogs fart in their sleep and keep one eye open since they were sure the sky was falling!

But we also had this...... The Aurora dancing across the night sky, reminding us that even in the dead of winter on the darkest night, the light will come.... eventually.  Sometimes I think it's Rye sending messages of hope for us too - just like the "song of the day" and the messages he sends to friends to give to me - sometimes through people that I barely know!  He recently told one of his friends in a dream that "I am great!  I am exactly where I'm supposed to be!"

Sometimes the messages are from people very close though.  Remembering you and those who have gone to see you first!  We are missing you both here and I hope you and Uncle Jeff have the birthday of all heavenly birthdays up there - in the Universe - Doing all the things!  Don't forget the Ding Dong Dash! Eat the cake!

May you have the most heavenly of Happy Birthdays my son, and may some of your light shine down on us all here on this side - bringing hope - I hope!

Blessed Be as we march into March!